Authentic Interview - ZInny Factor

What are your thoughts on being authentic? Put yourself in the shoes of a business owner. Just imagine how stressful their lives are. They have a million other rivals to compete with, they’re constantly trying to innovate and stay ahead of the curve. Trying to implement new technologies. Desperately trying to understand consumer trends and searching for talent.

That last part concerns you, someone who is searching for a new career or a new job has to factor in all these things an employer is trying to do. So when it comes to hiring, a business owner doesn’t want just any average Joe, they want someone who can really change things for them.

Hard work is great, due diligence is thoughtful but authenticity is the spark of brilliance. Being authentic means you have your own way of doing things, your own unique thought processes and the ability to look at problems within a company completely different from everyone else. This is what employers crave when they go on a hiring search for new, fresh talent.

 

Attitude and personality

You’ve probably read articles that show you the 5 things you should do in a job interview. One of the things that always gets listed is your attitude. Employers aren’t just eyeing over your resume, but your body language, posture, facial expressions and other subtle cues that show them who you really are.

Don’t worry they’re not some kind of cyborg that can see right through you, they only employ these tactics because they’re so sick and tired of carbon copies. Everyone can say they work hard, who doesn’t? Everyone can say they are willing to work with other people and be part of a team, it kind of comes with the job. What many people don’t do in job interviews is be truly authentic.

More and more employers are ditching the standard job interview practices and just having a general conversation. If your resume is brilliant, your skills, previous experience and achievements will always speak for themselves. What employers are doing now is asking real questions that concern their business to candidates and seeing if they can come with solutions to their woes.

This is where you use your attitude and personality to have a conversation with the interviewer as if you already work for them and or have known them for many years. Drop any sense of formality and just talk to them as if you were at dinner, making suggestions and thinking up ways to climb over a barrier at work.

You are who you say you are

Employers also want to know what kind of experience and extra achievements outside of your profession you have to your name. It could be something like organizing a public event such as a charity festival, or leading teams of students at archery class. Anything that shows you have leadership skills or are passionate about helping improve others in a team environment will go down well.

However, being good isn’t enough, they also want to see your advanced extra achievements in work as well. This could be something like taking a course in modern design software for your design career. It could be passing an internship with a foreign bank for your accounting career whereby you have learned foreign standards etc.

Yes, they want to see this in person, so getting your certificates authenticated and formally recognized with a company like authentifier.com.au, is going to help your cause greatly. For one thing, you can have the certificates you earned framed with the stamp of approval from the department of foreign affairs and trade.

It’s common for certificates that you earn abroad to not be known by employers from home, therefore getting an official stamp on your achievements will really impress an interviewer.

Be honest and simply authentic

Yes, it is indeed cliche to say this but, just be honest. Don’t sugarcoat anything such as bad previous employment, or moments when you were filled with self-doubt. An employer isn’t looking to hire a robot ( with the rise of technology, if they wanted to, you wouldn’t be at the interview in the first place) and being fake or hiding a side of yourself is going to put them off anyway.

So just be honest when answering any question that is posed to you. Just by this alone, employers will be drawn to you more and value your time with them for however short or long it will be.

Even in our own lives, we yearn for something that is authentic. Something that is original, one of a kind, unique and never before seen, we just want to know more and more about. So when searching for a new career or role, always be authentic and don’t hide who you really are.

What are your thoughts on these points? Share below and subscribe to the blog so that you are immediately updated once there are exclusive updates.

*This is a collaborative post.